Around the Fire
by Edali Ikyri
Summary: A bunch of drabbles and shorts about the little things. All stand alone chapters with no connection to each other unless otherwise stated.
1. The News

He finds her surrounded by maps and tomes. A small barely flickering flame is the only light left to illuminate her workspace. Quietly he casts his gaze to her current project and begins to put it away. He saves a stack of a copies maps from a puddle of ink, she must have tipped the bottle in her sleep. A blank piece of paper is ripped up to make crude bookmarks, she gets growly if she loses her place in a book. The tomes are then neatly stacked in the corner of the desk. The stack of papers goes on top of those. One of his sashes is sacrificed to clean up the ink puddle.

Once everything is neatly put into it's place he turns his attention to his wife. He brushes a lock her unruly red hair out of her face. She murmurs something in her sleep and catches his hand lightly. A soft and rare smile appears on his face briefly. It never ceases to amaze him that she is the only woman who can touch him without making him jump, even Lissa still makes him jump a little when she catches him off guard.

Lon' qu picks up his wife very carefully. As always she wiggles as soon as she is lifted from her chair. For a brief moment he thinks him might drop her. Then she sighs and nuzzles her face into his chest. Still he only relaxes when he has her in the bed and neatly tucks her in.

A soft knock tells him he cannot join her just yet. It also makes him long for his own home and and not the not-so-private private rooms Chrom has given them. Slightly aggravated he opens the door.

It's Lissa. He stiffens a little then forces himself to relax. It's only Lissa, he can handle that.

"Is Sassy still up?"

"No," is his simple response.

The nickname doesn't suit his wife in the least. Then again it didn't find it's origins in her character but rather in her proper name, Saskia.

"Aw geez. Well I'll visit tomorrow then." Lissa says, clearly sounding disappointed, and turns and walks away slowly, slightly like she's baiting him.

"What?"

He can't keep it from sounding aggravated but it's enough as she spins on her heels and bounces back to him. He flinches a little when she makes a particularly large leap in his direction.

"You guys are going to get your Morgan real soon!"

"What?"

Lon' qu doesn't quite understand. They have their Morgan. As a matter of fact the teenager is in the next room over pouring his soul out in a bad attempt at poetry. Poetry he fears is meant to woe a particular princess, Lon 'qu fears for his foolish son's life.

This is clearly not what Lissa is thinking though as she press her lips in a thin irritated line and her brows scrunch together. She sighs then relaxes the expression.

She adopts the tone Maribelle takes when she is forces to speak with Vaike, "Your wife, our favorite tactician, friend of us all, and High Deliverer of the people is pregnant."

Lissa smiles as she sees it sink in and Lon' qu quickly glances back at his wife over his shoulder. Lissa gently pats his shoulder and smiles.

"I'd hide her books now before the hormones really kick in," and with that she trots away.


	2. Vaike Meets Chrom

"Go play boy."

Vaike feels only slightly put out when the matron sends him away. There are things even Vaike understands regardless of only being nine. He knows when his father is gone off on one of his drinking binges, or sleeping it off in a gutter, his mom works for the masculine woman at the brothel. He is too young to understand what a brothel is or what kind of work his mom does but he knows he is not allowed unless there is some sort of emergency.

He walks away and stuffs his hands in the too large pockets of his father's trousers. The bottoms are rolled up and pinned so as not drag in the dirt, it is secure to his waist with rope. His feet and chest are bare and the visible skin is dirty, it's been a while since his last bath.

Twisting his mouth thoughtfully he strolls away. The summer sun glares down on the streets of this particular Ylissean slum. A loud commotion grabs his attention. His skinny form always him to weave through people and all sorts of nooks and crannies. He climbs a stack of crates for a better look.

He is surprised by what he sees.

The Exalt stands in their slums. A Herald is shouting something about conscription and sending men to war. Vaike doesn't understand so he ignores it. His eyes level at the young boy next to the Exalt.

Despite being a wellfed prince he is a scrawny thing. He stands a little behind his father looking petulant. An old knight and his squire stand within reach of him, they could easily sweep up the boy be gone should anything go array. The Herald finishes and the Exalt and Prince are gone in a flurry of shining armor and pretty horses.

That night Vaike's father returns a very strange man. He is suspiciously clean for a slum man and his eyes have a fanatical brightness to them. They are eating what is left of their bread when he announces he is joing the Exalt's army.

Of course his mother protests. To go to war for the Exalt means waltzing into death itself. Few men have returned from the war. Vaike slips away before they begin to argue. He stands outside in the cool night air listening to their voices rise. They yell about money mostly. How he can make it in the army. His mother says something about having it if father didn't drink it like a fish.

Vaike searches desperately for something else to distract him. He prays, like the traveling preacher taught him, to Naga for it.

His prayer is answered.

A loud noise draws him into the alley next to their hovel. A torch flickers weakly and casts frightening shadows on the ramshackle walls. A young boy's yell erupt from within like a lion cub. Vaike cast about for a weapon and spots his father's hatchet set into a heavy wooden block.

He has to yank on it with all of his slight underfed weight to pull it out. Once freed though he feels stronger and braver and rushes in. If the other boy is a lion cub then Vaike is a bear cub. He charges with a yell only to be caught by the man's accomplice. The old knight from before has the the prince by the back of the neck. A man, Vaike remember's him from the local alehouse, grips Vaike's shoulders.

He buries the hatchet into his captor's boney leg just above the ankle, he will either die or lose the foot. The man lets go and drops to the dirty ground. The yelling draws Vaike's parents from inside and a number of other people. The adults decend on the old knight when the situation dawns on them.

The slum people bind and tie the knight and save their prince for certain death. Vaike's mother ushers both boys away from the scene as city offcials appear. The activity level suddenly rises and Vaike does as he always has. He ignores it and begins picking at his scrapes. The blue haired boy takes out a pouch and captures Vaike's full attention. He digs in then produces some candy and a bandage which he hands to Vaike.

"I'm Chrom," the prince offers.

He responds with his own name, "Vaike."

"Want to join my Shepherds?"

Vaike is confused, "Princes herd sheep?"


	3. Wait, what?

Morgan really had no idea what was going on. One moment he was confortably asleep in bed the next he was waking up on the ground.

The young man blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked around. This was definately not his bedroom. The air was heavy with the scent of damp earth and summer rain. He stood and took an appraisal of himself. At least he wasn't still in his pajamas, or naked for that matter. His clothes were a simple pair of pants tucked into good boots and a plain tunic. A green cloak and a pack lay nearby.

"I hope this is a dream," he sighed and with nothing better to do he gathered the things up and began to walk.

He cautiously made his way through brambles and other forest life. Their was little wildlife to be seen. He managed to spook a deer and scare up a flock of crows which CAWsed quite stir in his heart, just a minor heart attack. Eventually he broke through a grove of trees and emerged on a road.

"Finally." He groaned.

Then a sudden gust of wind nearly blew him off his feet. He righted himself in time to watch the back end of a carriage barrel down the dirt road. Before he could question himself about it a dangerous tingle slid down his back. Morgan dodged out of the way as a large and very crud axe sliced the air where he had been.

"Hey!" He shouted at his would-be attacker and made to counter the man.

Only to find he didn't have a weapon. Cursing whatever force was behind this he turned and ran. He mentally thanked his mother for the slight build and tactical thinking he had inheirted from her. He easily put distance between him and the axe-crazy madman.

Stopping to breath and cast a look behind him showed him that the man was not in persuit. The sun on the other hand decided it was not a be-nice-to-Morgan sort of day. It beared down on him heavily and made breathing all that much harder.

"No point in just sitting here," He groaned and plodded on.

Until he fainted.

Then woke up to a beautiful and very familiar looking girl above him.

"Are you awake?" The green hair woman asked softly.

Somewhere a very pleased with himself Old Hubba chuckles.


	4. Lucina Reassures

Chrom doesn't know how he is going to return home without her. He doesn't know how he is going hold their baby without feeling guilty. Guilt felt because he failed to bring her mother home to her, failed once again to keep his family whole. He has to stop thinking about all the things he could have done different, has to believe she'll come back. He absolutely has to believe it or he will fall apart.

He is sitting in his tent alone trying to gather up the pieces. He still has duties to complete, responsibilties to his people. The tent flaps gently as someone enters. The hand they place on his shoulder is gentle but firm.

"Father."

The voice hurts and soothes him at the same time. He has two daughters now - and a son who might never be born in this time. He scolds himself for that thought silently and stands. It takes him by surprise when Lucina swoops under his arm and gives him a hug. Her arms wrapped tightly around his midsection and her head on his chest.

"Everything will be alright, Father. Mother will come back. I know it."

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A/N: I haven't uploaded anything in a while and this was just floating around so I decided to share.


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